Saturday, April 02, 2022

3.077 - AMICOR (24)

3.077 - AMICOR (24)

#Dra. Valderês A. Robinson Achutti (*13/06/1931+15/06/2021)

Abóbora menina. Junto a uma plantação de abóboras na costa oeste dos EEUU

#NYRB evolving inheritance

Sponsored by California State University, Northridge

M. W. Feldman and Jessica Riskin

Jessica Riskin and M.W. Feldman, interviewed by Lucy Jakub

An Evolving View of Inheritance

“Instead of aiming for purity, science should aspire to self-awareness and engagement in a larger project of understanding.”

April 2, 2022

M.W. Feldman and Jessica Riskin

Why Biology Is Not Destiny

In The Genetic Lottery, Kathryn Harden disguises her radically subjective view of biological essentialism as an objective fact.

In our April 21, 2022 issue, Jessica Riskin and M. W. Feldman reviewed The Genetic Lottery, in which the psychologist Kathryn Paige Harden makes a case that our genes inform our character and success in society, and that these inequities of genetic inheritance should be considered in crafting progressive social policy. To Riskin and Feldman, her argument was eerily familiar: “The idea of a biological hierarchy of intelligence arose alongside the first theories of human evolution. It never goes away when discredited, just changes forms.”

#The Lancet

Long-term efficacy and safety of renal denervation in the presence of antihypertensive drugs (SPYRAL HTN-ON MED): a randomised, sham-controlled trial; Prof Felix Mahfoud, MD et al. Felix Mahfoud, MD

Interpretation

Radiofrequency renal denervation compared with sham control produced a clinically meaningful and lasting blood pressure reduction up to 36 months of follow-up, independent of concomitant antihypertensive medications and without major safety events. Renal denervation could provide an adjunctive treatment modality in the management of patients with hypertension.

#Science News

A star nicknamed ‘Earendel' may be the most distant yet seen

Apr 05 2022 7:00 AM

Analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images revealed a star whose light originates from about 12.9 billion light-years away, researchers say.

#Livescience

New part of the body found hiding in the lungs

(Shutterstock)

Scientists have discovered a brand-new type of cell hiding inside the delicate, branching passageways of human lungs. The newfound cells play a vital role in keeping the respiratory system functioning properly and could even inspire new treatments to reverse the effects of certain smoking-related diseases, according to a new study.

The cells, known as respiratory airway secretory (RAS) cells, are found in tiny, branching passages known as bronchioles, which are tipped with alveoli, the teensy air sacs that exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the bloodstream. The new RAS cells are similar to stem cells — "blank canvas" cells that can differentiate into any other type of cell in the body — and are capable of repairing damaged alveoli cells and transforming into new ones.

Full Story: Live Science (4/5)

# Charles Darwin's stolen 'tree of life' notebooks returned after 20 years

#Medium

Ethan Siegel in Starts With A Bang!·

11 min read

Wow! The Milky Way is almost as old as the Universe itself

Galactic archaeology has uncovered a spectacular find: the Milky Way already existed more than 13 billion…

This artist’s impression highlights the four tails of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy (the orange clump on the left of the image) that’s presently orbiting the Milky Way. The bright yellow circle to the right of the galaxy’s center is our Sun (not to scale). The Sagittarius dwarf galaxy is on the other side of the galaxy from us, but we can see its tidal tails of stars (white in this image) stretching across the sky as they wrap around our galaxy. Although numerous mergers have occurred over our galaxy’s history, bringing globular clusters and waves of star-formation with them, we can now trace our own galactic history back farther than ever before. (Credit: Amanda Smith, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge)

#NG

MAGAZINE

How viruses shape our world

COVID-19 is a reminder of their destructive power, but they’re crucial to humans’ development and survival.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/viruses-can-cause-great-harm-but-we-could-not-live-without-them-feature?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=acq-email::src=ngp::cmp=subs_ngm_acqemail::add=subs_ngm_acqemail_science&rid=77F33C556E4A2F83B894565BCBF9784E

Although feared as agents of disease, viruses also work wonders, shaping evolution from the very beginning. About 8 percent of our DNA comes from viruses that infected our long-ago ancestors and patched viral genes into their genomes. Some of these genes now pl...

PHOTOGRAPH BY LENNART NILSSON, TT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY (COMPOSITE OF TWO IMAGES)

Let’s imagine planet Earth without viruses.

We wave a wand, and they all disappear. The rabies virus is suddenly gone. The polio virus is gone. The gruesomely lethal Ebola virus is gone. The measles virus, the mumps virus, and the various influenzas are gone. Vast reductions of human misery and death. HIV is gone, and so the AIDS catastrophe never happened. Nipah and Hendra and Machupo and Sin Nombre are gone—never mind their records of ugly mayhem. Dengue, gone. All the rotaviruses, gone, a great mercy to children in developing countries who die by the hundreds of thousands each year. Zika virus, gone. Yellow fever virus, gone. Herpes B, carried by some monkeys, often fatal when passed to humans, gone. Nobody suffers anymore from chicken pox, hepatitis, shingles, or even the common cold. Variola, the agent of smallpox? That virus was eradicated in the wild by 1977, but now it vanishes from the high-security freezers where the last spooky samples are stored. The SARS virus of 2003, the alarm that we now know signaled the modern pandemic era, gone. And of course the nefarious SARS-CoV-2 virus, cause of COVID-19 and so bewilderingly variable in its effects, so tricky, so dangerous, so very transmissible, is gone. Do you feel better?

Don’t./.../

#Quanta Magazine

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